


Stitching the World Together (And Tearing the Stitches Out)

by The_Peridot_Shade



Series: The Girl Who Broke The World and Other Alternate Histories [5]
Category: Elder Scrolls, Elder Scrolls Online
Genre: At least they're honest about their lack of interest in the more metaphysical side of things, Gen, Implied Terminal Illness, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Metaphors, Nonbinary Character, Philosophy, The Vestige Is Not A Good Person, They also actually care about the Nerevarine so that's a point in their favor, They were once maybe, They're kind of a classic cynic, Unreliable Narrator, but hey, but not anymore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-01-06
Packaged: 2021-03-16 19:26:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28587165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Peridot_Shade/pseuds/The_Peridot_Shade
Summary: The Vestige shares their opinion on everything that went down before and after the temporal disturbance.  They have surprisingly good coping methods for all their dubious life choices.They also have a much more practical view of things than their compatriots.
Relationships: Nerevarine & Vestige
Series: The Girl Who Broke The World and Other Alternate Histories [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2091444
Kudos: 3





	Stitching the World Together (And Tearing the Stitches Out)

**Author's Note:**

> So...a wild Vestige appears! Somewhat creepier than your average hero, but this *is* Tamriel we're talking about.  
> I tried to give enough hints as to what they're involved in, so if you could please tell me what you pick up on, it'd help me figure out how subtle to be in their longer fic. Mind the tags. It's not explicit, but the implications are a bit Not Good.

I never thought this would be what I became.I never thought I would be the one to make the hard decisions, to speak with Kings and gods.

I was only a tailor, and happy to remain so.

But fate had other plans.Mannimarco had other plans.Molag Bal had other plans.

I have lost much, it is true, but I have never felt lessened by it.I have only done my best to take pleasure in the small things.A bright length of cloth, a touch of embroidery.Pulling in a fish for the supper fire.Fresh-picked flowers tucked into clean hair.

And other, darker things, but simple nonetheless.

I needed it to endure my greatest trial: my own deathlessness.

I matured but did not age.Was slain but did not die.Grew deathly ill but never passed into the Void.

I hated it.It was not _right_.

And so after nearly a millennium of such existence, I was delighted to be offered a way out.A way to achieve the ending I desired.

I would have to relive all the set up, of course, but after that?

The possibilities are _endless_.And I?I will not be.

At last.

I only have to weave myself into the role of hero once more, stitch together the disparate pieces of the Pact, and watch reality shift around me.

My dear friend Andrache would say that we are all connected already.For all their wariness now, they have always been the optimist, the idealist, the philosopher between us.

I take a more…earthly view.

Mortals only ever _strive_ towards those ideals we all hold so dear.It is our own nature that cripples us, sabotages all our efforts, restricts our choices.

And so we must transcend that nature to _achieve_ anything.Or not, as the case may be.

I hold little interest in the grand matters the mad god detailed for us.My interest is in the execution.

What binds us together, what guides our choices—is the lies we tell ourselves.Lies given to us, lies that come from us; it matters not.What matters is that they exist.They are the foundation of Order, the limiting factors of any equation.And so without them, we founder, lost in possibilities without knowing how to navigate them.

When we acted as we did, we stripped away one of those lies.To succeed in truth, we must preserve the others.For how else will we direct the outcome as we wish?

And so I stitch together quarreling allies, weave a tapestry of disparate identities, and…tear out the stitches poorly done, the knots and snarls in the work.

It is not so different from the work to which I have long been accustomed.

Either work.

But such is life, after all.We find ourselves running in circles in the strangest of ways.

My hope is that this will prove true in the grander matters.

Matters of life and death.

If not, well.I am not above cheating to get what I want.

Sithis knows I've done it before.


End file.
